Teresa Villegas' Loteria Paintings and Collection

When Teresa Villegas took her first trip to Mexico in 1985, she discovered something that would become a major motif in her future art works: Loteria, a Mexican card game similar to Bingo.

Since then, the Phoenix artist has visited Mexico dozens of times, created a series of paintings of Loteria cards, and accumulated several different Loteria decks.

Loteria decks contain 54 cards, often accompanied by an image and a piece of poetry or prose that describes the image.

Villegas owns several copies of the traditional Loteria deck, which Pasatiempos Gallo, S.A. de C.V. (or Don Clemente, LLC in the US) began manufacturing in 1887. But Villegas also has some unique artisan decks, similar to her own "updated" version of Loteria, which Don Clemente manufactured until 2008.

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Teresa Villegas' Loteria game.

Niki D'Andrea

​Villegas also owns a Loteria de la Mujer deck by Arte Crisol. Each card features original artwork by Nuvia Crisol Guerra, which depicts human figures demonstrating everything from a drunk to the Virgin Mary. The deck also comes with beans for playing pieces.

But Villegas' real point of pride is her own Loteria deck and paintings.

In 2002, Villegas painted 54 Loteria images in oil on wood panels. She says each painting is based on iconography from her experiences in Mexican culture. "I wanted to bring back the culture of Mexico to the U.S., in a fun and interesting way," Villegas says.

Among Villegas Loteria images: La Virgen (for which she used green, glow-in-the-dark paint), La Poetisa (a painting of poet/nun Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz), El Santo (a masked wrestler and movie star renowned in Mexico), and our personal favorite, Lujeria (lust), which depicts a devil similar to the "El Diabilito" figure in traditional Loteria. But Villegas puts a twist on the image by dressing the devil in Calvin Klein underwear and giving him an erection (to represent lust for money, Villegas says).

A Loteria deck by Arte Crisol, from Villegas' collection.

Niki D'Andrea

Lujeria (lust) by Teresa Villegas

www.teresavillegas.com

​Villegas says her entire set of Loteria paintings is for sale, but only as a set. Individual prints are available for people who only want images of one or two of the Loteria cards.

In the meantime, Villegas' Loteria paintings have been touring various museums and galleries around the country and in Mexico. For Villegas, making a Loteria deck wasn't just about cool visuals, but sharing pieces of Mexican culture and history. "As an artist, it was really fun," she says, "but it's also kind of an anthropological endeavor."

Niki D'Andrea has covered subjects including drug culture, women's basketball, pirate radio stations, Scottsdale staycations, and fine wine. She has worked at both New Times and PHOENIX magazine, and is now a full-time freelancer.